A Proper Dinner in the View of Saint Petersburg Citizens

Abstract

This article aims at studying the understandings of ‘proper dinner’ in the context of everyday eating practices of ordinary people of working age (25-54). It draws on 26 in-depth interviews with St. Petersburg citizens. The respondents were asked to describe their dining in weekdays, ideas of ‘proper dinner’, as well as what they consider ‘proper’ or ‘improper’ in their dinner. The results show that the common practice of dining includes daily cooked dinner consisting of one or several dishes. The traditional mode of dinner remains dominant and oriented to reproduction of conventional patterns. At the same time, dining practices become more flexible; situational factors and individual preferences are playing a significant role. In some cases, ‘Soviet’ standards contradict modern ‘proper meal’ understandings. The destructuration of eating practices makes modern dining closer to ‘gastro-anomie’ described in European literature. In the opinion of St. Petersburg citizens, ‘proper dinner’ means hot daily meal consisting of several dishes. As a rule, it is soup and meat dish with staples added by vegetables. The dinner is presented by conventional dishes, cooked from fresh and natural products and occurs in afternoon hours, in quiet and nice atmosphere.